Date   : Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:00:51 +0100
From   : rs423@... (Mick Champion)
Subject: Leccy @ Acorn World '09

Jonathan Graham Harston wrote:
>
>  
>   
>> kept, our 2  amp round pin and 5 amp round pin socket outlets (brown and
>>     
>  
> Bad installation practice.
>   
Not when it was first installed maybe? Do round plugs have grandfather 
rights? Regulations only apply to new installations, but what does a 
safety certificate cover?  Having said that, I wouldn't want cloth 
covered cable feeding any of my sockets, round or otherwise. If the 
electrician replaced the cable, then it would count as a new 
installation I guess. What's the point of keeping round plugs in any 
case, they aren't even fused are they?. At least the days of plugging 
your electric heater into a bayonet light bulb double adaptor have 
gone..... Haven't they?



>  
>   
>> So we have a mixture of 13amp square pin, and 2 amp and 5 amp round pin.
>> Most at floor level, or just above. Mind you, we had to get several quotes
>>     
>  
> Explicitly against regs.
> 553-01-06: A socket-outlet on a wall or similar structure shall be
> mounted at a height above the floor or any working surface to
> minimize the risk of mechanical damage to the socket-outlet or to
> an associated plug and its flexible cord which might be caused
> during insertion, use or withdrawl of the plug.
>   
What did the regulations state at the time though?




>
>  
>   
>> By the way, I have never understood why we can't have socket outlets in
>> bathrooms, etc, yet France and Gernmany, for example, have no such qualms.
>>     
> As
>  
> 'cos electricity and water don't mix!
>   
Agreed 100%



We seem to be overloaded with regulations these days, can't do this, 
fined for whatever you do, however gas and electricity need a lot of 
respect. One can blow you up or kill you with carbon monoxide, the other 
can burn you to death or electrocute you or those close at hand. Is a 
round plug with no fuse but has a 5 amp fuse at the fuse box (6amp MCB 
breaker at the distribution unit) any safer than the same piece of 
equipment with a appliance cable rating of 3 amps with a 13 amp fuse and 
32 amp breaker? I don't think so. Would it pass a safety test..... Pass 
(that is I've passed on the answer) ;-)



Mick